Sacrifices
by Miss SheDevil
Summary: John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey teach us how refusing to lie and essentially, dying with dignity is much more honorable and rewarding, than to cheat and live a life filled with shame, with a blackened name. [Essay]


"It is not titles that honour men, but men that honour titles."  
― Niccolò Machiavelli

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_The Crucible_, the famous play by Arthur Miller, is a story set in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, in which the townsfolk were all accused of performing witchcraft, a time period more commonly known as the Salem Witch Trials. Their greatest dilemma: "confessing" to witchcraft to save their own lives, or refusing to lie even if their lives were the price they were forced to pay. Through two of Miller's strongest characters, Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor, we are being taught that to die with honor is worth more in the end than to live a life filled with shame.

Rebecca Nurse is a strong and proud individual – and essentially, a good woman – who makes decisions and acts on what she believes, is right. For instance, Reverend Parris' daughter, Betty Parris, is bewitched and she does not believe that it is related to witchcraft at all. She insists to everyone,

**I think she'll wake in time. Pray calm yourselves. I have eleven children, and I am twenty–six times a grandma, and I have seen them all through their silly seasons, and when it come on them they will run the Devil bowlegged keeping up with their mischief. I think she'll wake when she tires of it. A child's spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back.  
****(I. 24)**

Rebecca trusts that the idea of witchcraft in Salem is ludicrous and that Betty is simply going through her "silly seasons", based on the evidence that she has a great deal of experience with her children and grandchildren. She is confident in her principle that accusations are just jumping from person to person, and that innocents are being hanged for no fault of theirs. Rebecca is accused of witchcraft by the authorities of Salem who claim that she bewitched Anne Putnam's babies and was the reason of their deaths. Even though "confessing" may have saved her life, she refuses to perform such a vulgar and cheap act. When questioned a final time before her hang, whether she will confess to witchcraft or not, she replies, "Why, it is a lie, it is a lie; how may I damn myself? I cannot, I cannot" (IV, 129). To preserve her dignity, she simply refuses to lie; even it means that her life will be saved. Her behavior is based on what she considers acceptable and accusing others is not a respectable act. Rebecca Nurse is a noble woman who teaches us that if you give up your life, because it is the right thing to do, then it greatly appreciated although, in the play, John Proctor proves this more than anyone.

John Proctor, a well–respected and powerful individual, has a strong dislike towards the authority in the town of Salem; "I like not the smell of this 'authority'" (I, 29). He does not come to church regularly because he cannot stand listening to Reverend Parris speak only about sinners going to Hell. When Proctor "confesses" to have worked with the Devil, he is allowed to live as long, as he signs his name as proof. He does, but when he learns that his signed claim is intended to be nailed to the church doors, he changes his mind.

**Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!  
****(IV. 133)**

Proctor strongly feels that if he were to confess and live, the overpowering guilt about his extramarital affair with Abigail Williams and the fact that he lied to live, unlike other brave and noble souls – Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey – would haunt him for the rest of his life. Furthermore, he does not want the townsfolk and his children to be aware of the fact that he had worked with the Devil. He is given only one name and he does not wish to besmirch it. His dignity, his pride and most importantly, his name are worth more than his life.

It is far superior to have people remember somebody for what they did _right_, instead of what they did _wrong_. Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor are the two of the main protagonists of the play, who show us through their self–sacrificing deeds how important it is, how much more honorable it is to die with glory than to remain alive with disgrace.

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**Author's Note: **My English teacher requested that our essays were given a broader audience, whichever way we wanted, for extra credit. That's about it. Carry on with your life.


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